Our parish

Berlin Cathedral is a vibrant place that embodies the Christian faith with its own parish community. It currently includes approximately 1700 women, men and children, with more joining every month. The Cathedral parish is a so-called personal parish, i.e. any Evangelical Christian who has been baptised and who lives in Berlin or the vicinity can become a member of the Cathedral parish. You can submit a membership application, and are warmly invited to join an introductory talk with one of the Cathedral Deans. The Cathedral is a church for Christians throughout the entire city.

The governing body of Berlin Cathedral is known as the Cathedral Council (Domkirchenkollegium [DKK]). It consists of eight men and women who are members of the parish, and who are appointed for six years respectively. The work undertaken by the Cathedral Council is not remunerated.

Cathedral Dean Dr. Petra Zimmermann, Cathedral Dean Thomas C. Müller (Directing Cathedral Dean) and Cathedral Dean Michael Kösling are the Pastors of Berlin Cathedral. They lead the services of worship on Sundays and public holidays, as well as Saturday Vespers and the Taizé services. Our Deans celebrate the daily Vespers, bear responsibility for baptisms, weddings and funerals of parish members, and hold pastoral counselling sessions. They also lead various congregations and other working groups, and fulfil a representative function for the Cathedral in ecclesiastical committees. Pastor Birte Biebuyck is active at Berlin Cathedral on a voluntary basis, she supports the full-time Pastors and offers baptismal courses for adults.

Do you enjoy working together to achieve something great? Do you enjoy helping other people and volunteering as part of a team? Would you like to give some of your free time? At Berlin Cathedral there are numerous groups which undertake voluntary work in a wide range of areas, and who are always delighted when new members join the team.

The history of Berlin Cathedral’s parish is as varied as that of the building itself. Elector Joachim Friedrich transformed the spiritual foundation that had existed since 1465 into a parish church, the ‘Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin’ in the year 1608. But it was not until the conversion of Elector Johann Sigismund from Lutheranism ...

The Berlin Cathedral parish has something special up its sleeve, a kind of parish membership ‘light’: the Berlin Cathedral Friends Group (Freundeskreis des Berliner Domes). If you do not, for example, live in Berlin or Brandenburg, but rather in another federal state or even abroad, then you can become a member of our Friends Group.